They got back to the restaurant and unloaded their supplies. The deliveries had already started showing up. Kevin and some of his other employees were already organizing everything into its places. Charlie strolled in not long after and looked over her station, jotting down items that needed replenishing, and desserts that she intended to make. They rounded the corner with the final items in hand. Cas set the eggs near her with a smile. "Hey, Chef." Charlie smiled back at him.

"Hey yourself, Charlie. Wanna meet the new sous chef?" Cas stepped back a little so Charlie could really see Dean.

She wiped off her hands on her slacks and walked over to him. "Hey, Dean." She reached out, and he shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you." Dean released her hand and smiled.

"You have much experience?" Charlie leaned back against the counter behind her.

"Not so much. I mean, I've worked a few kitchens in my time, but none like this. I hear I have some big shoes to fill."

"Ha." She turned to Cas and said, "You hired a joker." She turned back to Dean. "You'll be great. Just don't try to knock me over just because you can."

"Dean's not like that. I think you'll like him better than Katja." Cas looked down at her list and asked, "Whatcha got planned for the week?"

"Was thinking of doing up some small candies for each night, a trifle with a toffee tuile, and the rest is still up in the air."

"We have a ton of apricots coming in," Dean said.

"Hmm, that might be useful. You have a bunch of plans for them?"

Dean glanced at Cas then said, "I was thinking maybe we make a chutney to go with something."

Charlie seemed to consider it for a moment. "I might snag some of those then. I could make sabayon with them floating around in the middle. I could brulee the top of it for a little extra color."

"That sounds lovely, Charlie." Cas settled a hand on Dean's back and moved past them. He turned back and added, "Maybe we just have a whole night of apricot dishes."

"I might just sample a little from all the plates, Cas." She turned back to her station and added more to her list.

Cas moved off to his end of the kitchen. His station was meticulously clean and ready for his attentions. He picked up the apricots from where he had set them and handed them to Dean. "Here, make your chutney."

"Uh, now?" Dean took the bag.

"Unless you have something better to do." Cas let his lip curl up in a half grin. "I'd like to try out your version of it and see if I can pair it with something kicking around in my head."

"I'll get right on it, Chef." Dean's tone changed rather starkly with the addition of the word chef. All of a sudden he was serious and focused, not the laid back man singing away in the Impala. Cas was fairly certain that all of the items that he would need were in the area. Dean looked around, to acquaint himself with the station and what was available. He began heating a heavy bottomed pan on the stove with some tea seed oil. He made short work of chopping some onions and sending them to the pot. He found some garlic and quickly chopped it as well. He added it and gave the pan a little stir. The sizzle and pop of the items was a lovely music to Cas' ears.

"You've made chutney before?"

"Nope, but I've eaten plenty of it." Dean looked up nervously as he admitted it.

"Oh, well this should be quite interesting then. I'm gonna be over here, working on something. Let me know when you're ready to provide a sample."

"Sure thing, Chef." Dean's look of concentration as he spread out the apricots was somewhat cute. Cas found himself smiling as he strolled around to the other side of the station. He set up his space for the sea scallops that he intended to pair with the chutney, should it prove to be good enough. He already had a backup plan should Dean need one. He chose not to give the plan too much space in his mind though. He had a bit of confidence in Dean and hope that he would be able to accomplish something truly marvelous with his chutney.

Cas trimmed the side muscle from the scallops and moved them aside. He prepared his pan for them, adding oil and a bit of butter. He sliced a few shallots for good measure and added them to the oil and butter mix. He gently laid the scallops in the sizzling mixture and glanced over at Dean. He was humming as he worked. He was adding the apricots to the pan and stirring. He seemed to be making good progress as the smells were rather lovely.

Dean was working on something else at the same time. Cas watched his skilled knife work as he sliced several fingerling potatoes into smaller bites. He had another pan going with mustard seeds and some thin sliced red onions.

Cas asked across the counter space between them, "What're you making?"

"Oh, just a simple potato salad."

"What would you pair it with?"

"You said you were making pork and beans, if I recall correctly. Seems like you might just need some fancy potato salad to go with it." Dean smiled over at him.

Cas decided that he maybe needed to make the pork and beans item a real thing and not just a joke now. How to elevate it… He watched the way that Dean was cooking, the ingredients that he was pairing. He felt inspired. He gave the scallops some more time in the pan, adding some white wine for flavor. He noted the ingredients that went into Dean's chutney. He found complements for them and added them to the pan. He turned the scallops over and noted with satisfaction, the golden brown sear.

Dean had pulled the chutney and had it in a bowl off to the side. He was now fully concentrating on his potato dish. Cas moved off to the walk-in to get what he thought he'd need for a pork and beans dish. He had received a shipment of pork this morning from one of his local vendors. He mentally debated about whether or not the pork should be the centerpiece of this dish. He had black-eyed peas prepared from the night before, and he considered working out something with them. His vendor had sent along an order of Black Forest bacon, a favorite of his. He liked the crisp peppery edges, the intensity of flavor, and the way that it seemed to work with nearly any dish. I might be a tad hungry. He pulled the bacon and the black-eyed peas from the walk-in and went back to his station.

Cas pulled the scallops from the pan, and set them on a long rectangular white plate. He grabbed a new pan and cooked up the bacon. He added the black-eyed peas to a pot with a bit of stock. The peas had already soaked the night before, but he wanted to warm them now and pair them up with the bacon. He gave them a stir, pulled out the bay leaves from the night before, and added fresh ones to the mix. His bacon sizzled away at his side and he hummed a merry little tune. He often hummed classical music, and occasionally that gave way to the random bits of songs from Drake or Rihanna. This earned him looks from some of his employees. He found it amusing that they didn't see him as the type to listen to anything current.

Cas let his mind drift through songs and he settled on Work. He sang a little under his breath and moved about stirring his foods and adding to each here and there as the mood hit him. He eventually pulled the bacon and cut it into smaller pieces. He added them to the black-eyed peas and stirred them. He got a plate and imagined the plating. He looked over to Dean's side, still singing his songs. Dean was watching him, but pretended that he wasn't the moment that Cas looked over.

Dean was making a sabayon, or at least that was what Cas thought he was making. "You got a little inspired by Charlie, I see."

"Yeah, I made some once a long time ago, and Sammy said it was good. He's not much of a foodie, but he still goes on about that meal. I swear, I once made him a crummy box mac-n-cheese and the boy swore it was better than anything he ever ate. He was young though, so I guess all kids tend to worship at the altar of Kraft." Dean was concentrating on his sabayon while he told his story. Cas was mesmerized.

"Who is Sammy? I think you mentioned a Sam before."

"Oh, he's my brother. I pretty much raised him. With Dad's issues, it was necessary." Dean's brows knit together a bit. "Sammy's great though. I mean, honestly couldn't ask for a better brother." Dean was now spooning the sabayon over the potato mixture that he had created. Cas could see little nubs of herbs and mustard greens hugging the potatoes. It looked amazing.

He pulled the "pork and beans" and plated them, and added some greens that he had tossed into the bacon fat. Collards always went well with black-eyed peas. He moved the plate over to Dean's side of the station along with his scallops. Dean slid his dishes over next to Cas'. "So, I'm seeing some pairings here. Maybe we can figure out a way to get the potato dish onto the same plate as my pork and beans." Cas pulled out two forks from a nearby silverware rack. "Here, let's sample them."

Dean took the offered fork and scooped up some of Cas' black-eyed peas. He seemed to be rolling them around in his mouth a bit before chewing and swallowing them. Cas reached over and speared a bit of the potatoes. He ate them and his eyes closed on the bite. They were good, quite good. He turned to the silverware rack again and got a spoon. This is not your typical potato salad. Cas dipped in again with his spoon and pulled out another bite, this time with plenty of the sabayon. "You like it?" Dean sounded nervous, almost like he thought it was possible to actually dislike this dish.

"Like would be an understatement so profound that I am choosing to not answer you in favor of continued eating." He took another mouthful and noted Dean's expression shifting to one of subtle joy. "Try the scallops with your chutney. I want to know if they'll work together."

Dean cut one of the scallops and ate it first without the chutney. He seemed pleased. Then he tried it again with the chutney. "It seems like it works. I'm not sure that the chutney is good enough. You might want to make a different sauce instead."

Cas cut off a piece of a scallop and added a dollop of the chutney to the forkful. He ate it. It was perfect in all of the ways that unexpected flavor combinations were. He liked that Dean's chutney was flavorful, and not a bit shy in the spice department. "Dean, I would be pleased to spend the rest of my life eating just this meal. It is excellent. I'm quite glad that you agreed to work for me. I am also quite glad that I took a risk this week and hired you. To be frank, I wasn't sure if you would be able to handle the nuances of a restaurant like this one, but now, I wonder how I could have ever been in doubt. This is exceptional."

Dean turned away from him and set down the fork. "Thank you." His words sounded a little muffled. His hand darted up to his face, but Cas couldn't see why.

Charlie came over and said, "Hey Cas, you mind helping me with some of the dessert ingredients?"

"Okay." She could have asked any of the other worker, so he assumed that she wanted a word with him. She led him off to the large walk-in on the other end of the restaurant and they went in. "What's up?"

"So, what's the story with the new hire?" She had a hand on her hip and a look that seemed at once mischievous and also quite serious.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, did you hire him for his skills, or is he window dressing?"

Cas felt the look on his face shift to the scowl. "He's quite talented."

"Okay, okay. I didn't mean to doubt that. It's just that I may have noticed how you were watching him. You think he's dreamy." She said the last like it was some sort of silly song.

"I think that he is a talented chef that is also now my employee." Cas felt the defensive tone undercutting his words.

"Cas, it's me. We talk like friends when no one's looking." She reached out and set a hand on his arm. "You find him attractive."

Cas shrugged her off. "Well, I'm not dead. He's obviously aesthetically pleasing." He moved back to the door to leave, the cold was starting to seep in under his skin. "He's also my employee, and I have no intentions of making our relationship awkward. He deserves to have a work environment free of mine or anyone else's unwanted advances."

"What if he looks at you the same way? What if he wants the advances?" Charlie came back to his side.

Cas paused with his hand on the door handle. "Well, I made a choice. I hired him. You don't get your honey where you get your money."

"That's dumb, Cas."

"Not so much. Could you imagine having to work with someone that you dated? I mean, you'd never be able to escape them. I'd rather have a little peace in here. Lord knows we need that after the last couple of months." He opened the door and effectively ended the conversation.

He strolled back over to the station and noticed that Dean had polished off the rest of the black-eyed peas and another scallop. "Sorry, I maybe ate more than I should have. It was really good though."

"Eat away. I think we've got two items for the menu. You feel confident enough to get these items going for tomorrow night?"

"Yes, Chef." Dean looked down at the scallops and the now empty plate of black-eyed peas. "Actually, you might need to walk me through the preparation on the peas. There's some flavors that I'm not familiar with."

Cas smiled. "Of course, Dean." He moved some of the dishes off to the bus tub and let himself finish off a few bites of the scallops and chutney. He liked the way that Dean looked in the moment. He schooled his thoughts into a safer place. He glanced past Dean and saw Charlie looking back at him. She waggled her eyebrows. He rolled his eyes at her.

"Something wrong?"

"Uh, no. Charlie's just making faces at me. We do that sometimes." Cas felt awkward and moved away a bit. He cleaned up the station and pulled down a paper to write out the menu. Dean leaned onto the counter next to him and watched him write. It was not easy for Cas to focus. Dean's arm settled against his. He could practically feel the little gusts of hot breath on his cheek. Dean wasn't too close, but Cas usually kept a respectable distance between himself and others. Cas was starting to think that Dean was not one for personal space. Maybe we should talk about this. But he didn't say a word. No harm in silently enjoying this. No harm at all. He glanced toward Charlie again and noted that she was still watching them, a smile on her face.